Artis—Naples, The Baker Museum is one of the foremost fine arts museums in
Southwest Florida. As part of a multidisciplinary arts organization that creates and
presents over 300 events annually, the museum hosts traveling exhibitions to
complement installations drawn from the permanent collection. Its internationally
recognized holdings of modern and contemporary art from the Americas include nearly 3,000 objects
and continue to grow. The Baker Museum strives continuously to expand its cultural offerings and to
make art meaningful and accessible to its entire community.
2014-15 Exhibitions:
Art as Activism: Taller de Gráfica Popular
September 6-October 5, 2014
100 Years of American Abstraction
September 6-October 25, 2014
Schrenk Student Photography Exhibition
September 20-November 9, 2014
Generously underwritten by
George and Wynnell Schrenk
Someday is Now: The Art of Corita Kent
September 27, 2014-January 4, 2015
Fine Lines: American Drawings from
the Brooklyn Museum
October 24, 2014-January 18, 2015
Generously underwritten by Patty and Jay Baker
Exploring America: Western, Wildlife
and Contemporary Art from the
National Museum of Wildlife Art
and the Stonehollow Collection
November 8, 2014-February 1, 2015
Generously underwritten by Ann and Dick O’Leary
Face to Face: Artists’ Self-Portraits from the
Collection of Jackye and Curtis Finch, Jr.
January 17-April 12, 2015
Gods and Heroes: Masterpieces from the
École des Beaux-Arts, Paris
February 21-May 17, 2015
Local presentation generously underwritten by
Johnsonville (Ralph and Shelly Stayer) and
Friends of Art
Weegee by Weegee: Photographs from the
Jean Pigozzi Collection
May 2-July 26, 2015
and September 5-November 8, 2015
Supported by the Myra Janco Daniels Legacy Fund
7th Annual Student Exhibition
May 9-July 26, 2015
Jan Yoors: A Retrospective
May 16-July 26, 2015
and September 5-October 20, 2015
Generously underwritten by
Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo
Celebrating 15 Years of Collecting
at The Baker Museum
June 6-July 26, 2015
Generously underwritten by Friends of Art
Art After Hours
Enjoy free admission to The Baker Museum the
last Wednesday of each month from 6-9pm. A local
Florida Contemporary
band offers musical entertainment, and audiences
January 31-April 26, 2015
Generously underwritten by Bob and Terry Edwards of all ages are welcome to view the galleries and
learn about the exhibitions from our docents.
and Friends of Art
Surrealism in Belgium:
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
January 31-May 3, 2015
Generously underwritten by
Lety and Stephen Schwartz
artisnaples.org · 239-597-1900
Jan Yoors: A Retrospective
Generously underwritten by Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo
May 16-July 26, 2015
September 5-October 20, 2015
The Baker Museum
5833 Pelican Bay Boulevard
Naples, FL 34108
We are grateful to Patty and Jay Baker for their generosity and leadership support of the museum.
The Baker Museum
Jan Yoors (1922-1977), a charismatic Flemish-American artist and
son of the accomplished glass artist Eugène Yoors (1879-1977), built
his career in New York City after World War II. Originally trained as
a sculptor, he developed a fluency in drawing, painting, photography
and writing, but above all, became an acclaimed and innovative
tapestry maker—leaving an unparalleled legacy working in this
medium. Yoors’ multifaceted oeuvre was inspired by the rich life
experiences from his youth with a gypsy family to his imprisonment
by the Nazis, through his many journeys and documentaries in
the Amazon, the Far East, Russia as well as in New York City
neighborhoods that went through social revolutions in the 1950s.
At age 12 Yoors wandered into the world of a Roma kumpania, or
camp, near his native home in Antwerp, befriended several of its
children and by the next day traveled with them across borders,
becoming integrated into this community as he grasped their
language and customs, eventually becoming an adopted family
member. Over the next ten years, Yoors traveled with and lived
among the gypsies, dividing his time between his adoptive Roma
family and his parents back in Antwerp. This experience, combined
with the ideas about art and society cherished by his deeply religious
yet cosmopolitan parents, would have a lasting influence on his
career as an artist.
Above:
Written in Fire, 1974
Wool and cotton
232 x 731 cm
Collection of the
Yoors family
partnership
On the cover:
No Pine, 1973/
Date woven: 1980
Wool and cotton
323 x 213 cm
Collection of the
Yoors family
partnership
Below:
Yoors with Gypsies
in Belgium, 1938
Collection of the
Yoors family
partnership
Living in England after the war, Yoors decided to embark on a life making
contemporary tapestries, and together with his wife Annebert, taught
himself the craft, executing work based on gouache compositions and designs.
Above:
Marvin Bolotsky,
Marianne Citroen,
Jan Yoors and
Annabert van Wettum
at Yoors’ studio
at 47th Street,
New York, in front
of a commission for a
church in Minnesota,
ca. 1960-67.
Collection of the
Yoors family
partnership
After establishing himself in New York City in 1950, Yoors occupied a studio
space, constructed a 15-foot vertical loom, and with the help of Annebert and
her friend Marianne, continued making tapestries. Keeping the work in the
family allowed him to be directly involved with the craft, unlike artists such
as Jean Arp or Roy Lichtenstein, who contracted outside firms to execute
their textile designs. Yoors’ life was constantly in motion from the time of
his arrival in the US: adept at thriving in different worlds, he maintained a
range of networks that allowed him to pursue his interests in the bohemian
Greenwich Village scene, witness gypsy culture, advance his growing interest
in photography and film and pursue recognition in the art world.
Below:
et al.
Female drawings
Charcoal on paper
76 x 66 cm
Collection of the
Yoors family
partnership
This retrospective exhibition, which was developed together with the Yoors
family partnership, is the first comprehensive survey of Jan Yoors’ work
organized in the US after his death. Tracing the evolution of Yoors’work from
figurative to abstract, it includes many examples of his creative production,
including tapestries, gouaches, drawings, sculptures and photographs.
Images courtesy
of the Jan Yoors
family partnership,
L. Parker Stephenson
and Gallery 51 in
Antwerp (Belgium)
The horrors of war that Jan Yoors experienced did not prevent him from
realizing the potential of humanity. Having received a gift of unconditional
love from his families—both biological and gypsy—he poured himself into
the vessels available to him, whether tapestry, photography, literature or
film. In the face of despair, he found “moments in life like sparks of timeless
ecstasy, cosmic, eternal, overwhelming” and made them into his art.